Collectivism

Collectivism is the belief that an imagined welfare of a group takes precedence over individual rights and values. Collectivism is thus an example of the liberal fallacy of reification. Economic collectivism is generally preferred by liberals, while many who call themselves conservatives are social collectivists. Libertarians often embrace individualism, generally accepted as the opposite of collectivism.

Collectivism thus is not to be confused with the fact that individual liberty allows, and love of others often enjoins, collective action. In other words, 1) civil society, beginning with the civil family, is not, by definition, parallel play, but, rather, is a more-or-less informally coordinated balancing of complementary, and sometimes even conflicting, needs; whereas 2) collectivism is a consistent subsuming of the natural and civil rights of the individual, and thus of the family, to an unintelligently inflexible mere abstraction of those very rights.